this morning part of our week-long and couple of weeks' long conversation on the fiscal cliff, a focus this morning on the expiring tax provisions. host: today we're looking at the issue of tax extenders or tax incentives for business and individuals. and joining us in this discussion is sam goldfarb, who is a tax writer for c.q. roll call. what are tax extenders? >> well, they're temporary tax breaks. that's basically i think the most basic definition and some people are kind of concerned that the entire tax code is turning into one big tax extendser. so where do you really define it? but i think traditionally they're considered to be these pretty small provisions, narrowly targeted at specific types of businesses. some of them do apply to individuals as well. >> so why are they temporary? >> that's a good question. i think a lot of people, including people in congress, say either they should be made permanent or they should be eliminated altogether. but they're temporary because it's easier to pass that way. it looks like it costs less. usually they keep on being ex tended and extend